Control: Me, Myself, and I
by swrWriter
Summary: [Post-Story] With few leads on dispelling the Hiss for good, Pope finds one in the Synchronicity Lab and the Victorian Mirror. With time against the FBC, and progress slow, they decide to investigate the mirror once more. Though, in retrospect, she probably should've approached it more carefully... Now, she'll have to deal with the world beyond the Mirror... by and with herself.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1:

Director Jesse Faden held the Service Weapon tightly in her hand as she entered the Synchronicity Lab from the Ritual Division, though her business suit looked relatively undamaged. The Hiss were still relentless despite their disadvantages.

It'd been a couple of days since she'd shut down the slide-projector, and despite the fact that the hiss within the Oldest House no longer held infinite numbers, the supernatural force seemed undeterred in its mission to kill every non-integrated human alive in the building. The lockdown was still in effect, and Marshall was still MIA. The only other positive of the current situation was that she'd finished all the tasks given to her by the others…

It was still weird, not quite fully set in yet… she was the Director of the FBC. A couple of weeks ago, she was making her way to New York, looking over her shoulder as she hoped she was simply being paranoid… (Of course, she knew better now) Now look at her, the director in charge of a supernaturally-based federal organization, with little-to-no qualifications for the job except the facts that the Service Weapon chose her, and she seems supernaturally inclined. Polaris and Hedron certainly helped, though…

She was getting off-track.

A few hours ago, the new head of Research, Emily Pope, called Jesse into the Board Room. She'd apparently found a breakthrough in dispelling the rest of the Hiss from the building, something that could take years if it were done the old-fashioned way. (ie. room-by-room, as Arish said.)

Emily Pope told Jesse that, based on her own and other's recounts about the Hiss' activity, there were certain locations the Hiss refused to manifest. Some locations were more easily explained, but some weren't so easy. One location, in particular, was the Synchronicity Lab located down in the Research Sector. For some unknown reason, the Hiss would steer clear of the lab.

Jesse had immediately recalled her experiences in the lab with the Victorian Mirror, the mirrored dimension, and her seemingly mirrored-self. The big battle against a nearly evenly-skilled and powerful opponent, who seemed to have been corrupted by the Hiss. Emily had listened closely to her story, but brought up an interesting point.

Though her alter ego may have been affected by the Hiss, there was still no sign of the Hiss in either versions of the lab.

It was also interesting to note that when Jesse had gone to the other dimension, she was unable to explore beyond the lab, meaning there may have very well been Hiss in that other dimension within the mirror, but if there were, they were beyond the lab.

Emily theorized that the Victorian Mirror Altered Item may be emitting some kind of resonance, similar to Hedron's, that could be dispelling the Hiss away. If that were the case, it could be the breakthrough needed to contain the Hiss, maybe even eradicate what was left of it in the building depending on the discovery.

The problem was, the lab was located in an odd location, right beside the Ritual Division. The Ritual Division was a hotspot of Hiss activity, for one reason or another, making the process of getting Pope there to study the lab a not-so-easy task.

Though, with the lack of a breakthrough otherwise, Jesse didn't have much of a choice in the matter. She could either escort Pope to the lab, or wait for another breakthrough, however long it may be.

Jesse, being Jesse, took the quicker option. After all, they'd been trapped in this building for a while now… she'd prefer to see the sun and stars again before she reached retirement age.

Back to the Synchronicity Lab, Jesse entered with Emily Pope right behind her, having just taken care of the large group of Hiss in the Ritual division.

"Wow, Jesse… Ma'am, I must say, it is a pleasure to see you work." She said, amazed at her display of power and skill against the Hiss. She'd killed over a dozen of them without taking a single hit. Child's play for her by this point, really, but Emily had yet to see Jesse move so fluidly against the supernatural foe.

"Thanks, Emily." Jesse replied easily before her vision suddenly began to blue.

A blue tint appeared in her vision as she could see a vague outline of a familiar man in the distance. Former Director Zachariah Trench was speaking to her once more, the first time in days as it were. What caught her particularly off-guard was the fact that he'd said nothing the last time she'd been in this room.

His voice echoed in her mind silently, not affecting Emily in the slightest. He spoke in a broken fashion, only allowed a few fragments of phrases to reach her conscious mind. It was always like this at first…

"...Synchronicity Lab… dedicated to studying… dimensional research… another me… never returned…" His voice said, cutting out several times.

Jesse shook it off, turning to Emily. She'd consult the Hotline shortly.

"So, whatcha think?" She asked the researcher, who was currently walking towards the nearby monitors.

"I think… that this may take some time to prepare for. I'll need to set up my equipment and run a few tests."

Jesse nodded, "I see. Well, I'll be over there," She pointed to another spot near the corner with a seat, "I need to consult the Hotline."

Pope nodded in return, "Certainly. I should be able to set everything up by myself. It'd be better that way anyway. I'll leave you to it, Director." She finished, before returning to the monitors and the equipment she'd brought in as well.

As she walked away, Jesse called out a reminder, "And remember: Don't approach the mirror, doc."

Sitting down in the corner, Jesse made herself comfortable as she placed the Hotline down onto the counter beside her. The bright red, old-fashioned rotary phone may look like an odd antique, being laid unplugged onto the counter, but it held a strange, unique ability. You see, the phone, called "The Hotline" does not connect to or reach any other phone in this plane of existence. Rather, the Object of Power reached the Astral Plane, allowing the Director to talk to The Board, the leaders and founders of the FBC who resided there. It also had the ability to allow Jesse to listen to the thoughts and words of her predecessor: Zachariah Trench.

The Director gently reached over and grabbed the phone, thinking of the lab she was currently in, and the previous words she'd heard from Trench. Then, she picked it up and put it up to her head.

The phone rang in her ear, echoing in her head and around her brain for a few moments as she was connected to Trench's words. She closed her eyes and blocked out her surroundings, before the usual dark image of the former Director appeared in her mind, smoking a cigarette. His deep voice began just moments after the ringing finally stopped.

**"The Synchronicity Lab was a peculiar idea by Darling. After the Victorian Mirror was brought in, he studied it briefly in a lower lab… It'd been at the Bureau for less than a day, before Darling requested a larger lab dedicated to studying the mirror... I gave it to him… The Altered Item was the original basis for the creation of Dimensional Research, that is, until Ordinary. After that, the project was moved closer to the Ritual Division and the project was given to others… I once accompanied Darling to see the mirror… I… saw something… saw someone… another me… and he smiled at me… I refused to go back after that, and ordered an increase in isolation for the altered item. I never returned to the mirror, especially after Ordinary. Our focus soon shifted elsewhere…"**

His voice soon faded back into oblivion as Jesse opened her eyes, gently replacing the phone on its stand before putting the Hotline away. The information provided by the former Director was interesting. She could dwell on it later though, as it didn't seem entirely relevant for this particular project.

Standing up, Jesse wandered back over to Emily Pope, who seemed to already have her equipment set up and running. Just as she approached, Emily looked up and smiled, "Nice to have you join me, Director."

Jessie shrugged, "How's it looking, Emily?"

"It's all very fascinating. The Resonance… it's nothing like Hedron, or you." She told her, "But, there certainly are some similarities between the two. Whatever it is or its source, it seems to be, indeed, keeping the Hiss away."

Jesse raised an eyebrow and shifted her stance, "But…?"

Emily sighed, "...but, the Resonance seems corrupted. I can't get a good read from here. If I could just…"

The new Director didn't give her a chance to finish that thought, "I'm not letting you anywhere near that thing, Emily. It's an Altered Item. I seemed to have calmed it down, but who knows how it'll react if you go anywhere near it."

Shaking her head, Emily tried to reason with her, "Jesse. I can't do anything with this data unless I get the entirety of the signal."

Sighing, Jesse knew she'd need to compromise… though she knew deep down that she'd likely have to do the dirty work, whatever it was. "Give me the run-down. What do you need?"

Pope smiled and nodded, "Thank you, Jesse. The Victorian Mirror, itself, needed to be examined up close. If I could get one of these sensors behind or adjacent to the mirror, that should be fine. However, given what you've told me before, I'll need to gather some readings from the other side."

"Absolutely not!"

"Then this whole expedition was useless." She shot back immediately, before taking a deep breath and sighing, "I'm sorry Jesse… I've been losing sleep over this issue. We haven't made any progress in removing The Hiss, and some of us are itching to open the front doors."

Jesse nodded understandingly, "I understand Emily, but you're our best bet to getting those doors open in the first place. I can't risk you going through that mirror." She paused for a moment, before speaking again, "Can you get me the necessary tools?"

"What?"

"I'll go through the mirror and collect the data. But, I'll need whatever equipment necessary, and instructions."

Emily nodded, "I can do that. The sensors are portable and easy to use. They're mostly automatic, in fact." She grabbed a few small disks and held them out to Jesse, "I'll need one next to the mirror on our side, one next to the mirror on the other side, and probably one by where my workstation is on the opposite side as well."

Jesse nodded, "Ok, I can do that." She affirmed, reaching out and grabbing the tools.

"Thank you, Jesse. They're built to transmit the data back to me, so you just need to plant them in the right locations."

"Should be easy enough. I'll be back, stay here."

"Wasn't planning on going anywhere without you, Ma'am."

Internally cringing at the formality despite knowing she was doing it on purpose, Jesse pocketed the devices and made her way back down the stairs and around to the mirror chamber. She proceeded down the hallway and quickly reached the Victorian Mirror.

It was intricately and beautifully designed, with a dark, wooden border around the mirror, showing what appeared to be a mirror image within the reflective surface. That is, with one major difference… Jesse's reflection was nowhere to be seen. She didn't freak out, as she was used to this sort of thing by now. The mirror, after all, wasn't showing a reflection of her world, but the live-image of another, very similar world.

She reached over to the side of the mirror and placed one of Emily's disks on the edge of the wooden border. The device stuck to the rough surface, before beeping one as a green light began to blink.

_'Guess it was working.'_

Looking up and to her left, Jesse looked through one of the viewing windows to see Emily giving her a thumbs-up. Nodding to her, Jesse slowly reached out with her left hand and touched the mirror, focusing on the world within the mirror.

Slowly yet suddenly, her perspective changed as she blinked, disappearing from one world and appearing in another. Looking back up to her left, she noticed the dark room with no one observing her. She knew without a shadow of a doubt she'd successfully made the journey once more to the other world.

Placing another device on this side of the mirror, the second disk quickly stuck to the mirror, making another 'beep'. The light did not turn on for a moment, before suddenly it began to blink green.

That's two.

Turning completely around now, Jesse made her way out of the mirror chamber and went around the corner and up the stairs to the consoles next to a few viewing windows for the mirror. She found the location of Emily's workstation, though none of her equipment was here, truly showing that this dimension and the other aren't exactly the same.

She placed the final device down and heard it make the sound as it powered. A moment later, the green light on it began to flash, signifying its connection.

'All set. Hopefully, that'll give us everything we need.'

Jesse turned to go back down the stairs, when the alarms began to blare around her, just the emergency shutters shut down upon the mirror chamber, sealing it completely.

Racing down the stairs, she slammed a fist onto the emergency door as it finished sealing. She quickly raced back toward the main monitors in the lab, looking for an override, or attempting to find the reason the chamber sealed. Upon reaching the console and attempting to use it, she cursed aloud. "Dammit!"

The keyboard was reversed, making the entire device that much harder to read and use. The screen, itself, contained several phrases and words, which were inversed as well. She might have taken them for nonsense, but recalled the recording in this chamber, as well as the mirrored recording in her world.

The language here was reversed.

She reached down into the desk and pulled out a piece of paper and grabbed a pen as quickly as she could. Once she had the tools, she took a seat and began to transcribe the weird shapes and symbols on the screen as fast as she could. Once complete, she reached over and turned on a desk lamp, turned the paper around, and raised the paper up to the light. Doing so, she could read it in normal, non-inverted English. She read it aloud.

"Director Override Accepted. Emergency Sealing of Mirror Chamber Initiated. Notice: In order to unseal the A.I. please seek Director Override, or call for Doctor Darling."

Jesse frowned but realized this was only a minor set back, as she just so happened to be the director of this place… well, not here, really, but in her other reality…

That's when the thought came to her. What caused the lockdown?

It certainly wasn't automatic, as it happened out of nowhere. If it was because of Pope's device's it would have sealed her in with the mirror, not outside.

And… wait… Director Override?

"Who… who did this?"

That's when Jesse felt a presence behind her, and heard a sound eerily similar to her own Service Weapon changing forms. Her worries were confirmed when the barrel of a gun rested against the back of her head as she sat at the desk. Her eyes widened in alarm, before she heard a strange, vaguely familiar voice speaking behind her. Or, at least, it sounded like speaking, except it sounded like nonsense to her.

""!uoy llik ll'I dna evom sa hcum os uoY !?niaga uoY" A feminine, familiar voice yelled at her.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2:

Slowly raising her arms in surrender, Jesse remained perfectly calm, taking deep breaths as her mind began silently racing to determine the best course of action to get out of this mess. She took a deep breath and spoke calmly, attempting to defuse the situation despite her racing heart.

"I don't mean you any harm, I'm just here to get rid of the Hi-"

She was cut off by a harsh blow to the back of her head, forcing her out of the seat and to the floor as the room spun around her and her mind was filled with dull pain from the hit. Her vision rolled and wavered as she received her response.

"!hsilgnE kaeps ,kaeps ot gniog er'uoy fI !pu tuhS" The familiar voice responded angrily, though Jesse couldn't make heads or tails of any of it.

Turning her head slowly, the Director's vision returned to her, allowing Jesse to make out her angry assailant. She wore these blue-black robes that looked simultaneously futuristic and ancient, honestly looking incredible cool. Her assailant's hair was done much like how Jesse had used to have her hair, and her face was identical to her own. I was the other her from this world… the one who'd been corrupted by the Hiss last time she was here, and the one who'd tried to kill her.

The other Jesse.

Essej; as she'd begun to refer to her as when she'd recount her encounter from the mirror world.

The Director squinted her eyes, willing herself to focus on her doppelgänger as she stared into the barrel of the parallel service weapon. She racked her brain, looking for a way to communicate with her, and attempt to deescalate the situation. Keeping her hands clearly visible above her head, Jesse tried again, "I can't understand you… and you can't understand me…" She muttered the last part, "I don't want to fight you…" She told her calmly, especially seeing as how this version of Essej was actually communicating with her, rather than simply attacking. Of course, should she do so, Jesse was prepared to jump to her feet, pull the concrete up as cover, and fight back.

Essej narrowed her eyes as her lips pulled back into a snarl, before beginning to yell at Jesse, demanding something in an angry tone, equating to nonsense in her ears.

"!hsilgnE kaepS !uoy dnatsrednu t'nac I"

Jesse, despite the situation, began to think quickly, comparing her previous experience with the doppelgänger, the odd recordings she'd found in both versions of the lab, and her trick to decoding the language on the monitor. Her eyes slowly opened wider as the realization dawned on her. Everything was reversed between these two words, including speech. Maybe, if she could utilize those tape recorders, she could allow smooth communication between the two of them.

Unfortunately, with the hostility presented, attempting to do so would only result in a fight, and attempting to explain her actions would be impossible. As she remained silent, she noticed her doppelgänger was beginning to grow angrier, as if losing her patience.

Faden needed to do something. To say something. "Peace!" She said quickly, causing Essej to narrow her eyes once more. Quickly, Jesse through the word around in her brain, attempting to reverse the word.

_Peace reversed is ecaep, but how do I pronounce that? I think it sounds like 'Seep'? _

"Seep!" Jesse blurted out quickly, causing Essej to halt in her tracks, her eyes widening as her service weapon lowered slightly, yet remained pointed at Jesse.

."driew dnuos od uoy hguoht ...yllamron kaeps od uoy oS ?ecaeP" She seemed to remark, before refocusing on the apparent intruder, "!?uoy tsurt ylbissop I nac woH ?kcab emoc uoy did yhW"

Unfortunately, she spoke far too quickly for Jesse to catch any of that. She needed to tell the doppelganger that she couldn't understand her… that there was a way to communicate…

_She knows I said peace. She responded to that. Now, what do I say now?_

Jesse could see a blue circular phantasm appear at the edges of her vision as whispers entered her mind. It was Polaris… her guiding star and trusted friend, speaking to her. Encouraging her. Several words appeared in her mind that she should try to speak. Quickly, utilizing the aid provided, Jesse attempted to communicate.

_Ok, I need to try to speak in single words and phrases. Can't. Understand. Mirror. Reversed. Recorder. Communicate. I should try those._

"T'nac." She tried, before pausing for a moment to allow a break, "Dnatsrednu." She paused again, "Rorrim." She noticed that Essej had begun to calm down and listen to her, "Desrever." Essej's eyes widened as she seemed to realize what she was saying, "Redrocer." Jesse paused for the final time before speaking the final word, "Etacinummoc."

After she finished, her doppelgänger nodded and remained silent for a moment, before speaking aloud, though it seemed mostly to herself. "?...etacinummoc ot desu eb dluoc redrocer eht dna ,uoy rof desrever si gnihtyreve ,rorrim eht morf er'uoy ,em dnatsrednu t'nac uoY"

Jesse couldn't really understand what she said, but by the sound of it, her other self seemed to understand what she was trying to say. If she truly were like herself, Essej should be connecting the dots and coming to similar conclusions. Perhaps she hadn't already because of their past experiences. After all, Jesse came here to her reverse world, rather than the other coming to her own world.

Suddenly, Jesse's internal musing was cut off by the other Director's voice, speaking in an odd manner, as if the words were foreign in her mouth.

"Reversed… Mirrored…" She spoke, obviously trying to invert her own speech for Jesse to understand. "Use… Recorder… Communicate… hmm?"

Jesse slowly nodded.

Essej watched Jesse carefully for a moment, before motioning toward the exit into the larger lab where the Recorder laid according to prior knowledge. She then tried to communicate with Jesse once more, "You. Go. I. Follow. Slow. No. Weapon."

Jesse nodded in understanding, trying to communicate back to her, "On… Nopaew…" She confirmed. Slowly but surely, Jesse got back to her feet, leaving her Service Weapon hidden under her suit coat. Seeing as the other her was not reacting negatively, Jesse slowly turned around and walked toward the exit, hearing her doppelgänger following close behind.

It took only a minute or two to reach the central lab and the recorder, to which Jesse stopped before it and picked up the ancient device. She recalled the interview contained within with someone sent inside the mirror for an extended period of time… Now that she thought about it, perhaps the original researcher sent in never returned, and that was simply his doppelgänger from this odd, reversed world. After all, Jesse didn't seem affected by these types of experiences, but other researchers seemed affected, so it was possible that his doppelgänger accidentally entered the mirror from the other side and thought he was in the right place…

_Right, getting off track. Now, how do I work one of these again?_

Jesse's fingers glided over the device, before recalling how to use it. She opened the cabinet beneath it, marked 'Sepat', before hearing the service weapon come to life behind her. Stopping immediately, she raised her hands and moved to the side, showing the cabinet to Essej.

"KO." Essej remarked behind her, which was silently translated to 'ok'. "Continue." Essej then said, this time self-translating helpfully. Jesse nodded, before pulling it open and pulling another tape out of the cabinet, presumably a clean, unused tape. Working efficiently yet slowly, Jesse swapped the tapes out so that the previous tape's content wouldn't be deleted. Slowly, Jesse picked the equipment up and moved it to a nearby desk and put it down. Finally, everything seemed to be set up, with the microphone plugged in and the recorder ready for use. Turning back to her doppelganger, Jesse nodded. "Enod." She told her, telling Essej that she was done.

"Speak." Was the single word response she got back, only accompanied by a wave of the alternate service weapon toward the device. Jesse nodded, bending over to be closer to the microphone, she spoke.

"I don't mean you any harm." She tried to say reassuringly, "I'm here for research."

After finishing, she clicked the 'stop' button, and reversed the direction of the tape, before clicking 'start'.

**_".hcraeser rof ereh m'I .mrah yna uoy naem t'nod I"_** The recording said.

Essej's hands began to shake as she heard the recording, "!eciov ym s'taht ...em ekil dnuos uoy-Y" She said quickly, not even attempting to use the recorder so that Jesse may understand. After a moment, her eyes narrowed, she leaned forward, and pressed the record button. "?ereh uoy era yhW ?uoy era ohW"

Following the same process, the doppelgänger reversed the audio.

**_"Who are you? Why are you here?"_**

Jesse's eyes widened as she heard her very own voice speak to her, identical in every fashion. Sure, it sounded similar before, but now that it spoke fluently in her own language, there was no denying it. She took a hand and put it to her chest, "Jesse." She then pointed to the other.

"Essej." She said neutrally.

_So I was right, her name really is the reverse of mine._

**(A/N: I will not repeat the fact that they are using the recorder after every phrase, so to make it simple: Bolded and Italicized font is them communicating with the recorder. Normal font is them speaking normally.)**

Jesse spoke back into the recorder, as did Essej as they began to try to communicate with one another.

_"I'm here to research the Hiss." _Jesse admitted.

**_"The Hiss? You refer to those creatures out there, right?" _**Essej asked, motioning toward the closed doors, which would normally lead into the Ritual Division.

_"Yes, The Hiss are still a threat that I'm trying to deal with… What happened last time I was here? Why did you attack me?" _

Essej pulled a seat over from another desk and sat down, **_"I came to the Synchronicity Lab to look into the odd behavior of the Victorian Mirror. I'd gotten the protective barriers down around the mirror when I was called away to combat the Hiss back in the Ritual Division. Something went wrong, and for a moment, I lost my connection to…"_**

_"Polaris?"_

**_"How do you know that name? No one knows about her!"_**

_"Emily does, doesn't she? And what about Dylan? He knew."_

**_"Do not speak of my brother, Jesse!"_**

_"We are one and the same, Essej. Our worlds are mirrored, and I have my own Polaris."_

Essej took a deep breath and lowered her service weapon, **_"I get it, I know… and yes, something went wrong with Polaris and my connection to her. The Hiss jumped at the chance and tried to consume me. I recalled that the Hiss would steer clear of this lab, and attempted to make my way back into the lab. Everything grows fuzzy after that, but I remember that's when you showed up."_**

_"You attacked me!"_

**_"You looked exactly like me, except you wore my original clothes from when I was on the run! The Hiss had been messing with me, and you could have been a Hiss-induced clone from the mirror, so I tried to have you killed!"_**

_"As I recall, I killed you."_

Essej went silent at that, looking away for a moment before remembering where she was and who she was with, swiftly returning her attention to her doppelgänger from the other world. Jesse used this moment to speak again.

_"What happened after our fight?"_

**_"I'm not sure… One moment, I felt myself weakening from your blows, the next… I woke up in the Synchronicity Lab, alone… the carnage around me was the only proof that you were here. But, when I woke up, Polaris was back… I immediately left the lab, and ordered Arish to lock the doors to the lab from the outside, and not let anything out, no matter who or what they claimed to be."_**

Jesse tried to absorb everything she'd heard. Based on Essej's story, it sounded like her world and 'timeline' occurred exactly like her own… at least, it did until the Synchronicity Lab. Polaris never failed Jesse… Of course, that was excluding the death of Hedron… Regardless, something happened that caused events to occur differently, and forced their previous encounter to occur the way it did. The real question is: What changed?

Essej, this time, took Jesse's silence as permission to continue, **_"I'm sure you know what happened after the Lab. Hedron was destroyed, I eventually found and destroyed the Slide Projector, and Dylan was put into a coma… Most of them want Dylan to never wake up, but I don't care what they think."_**

_"I didn't destroy the Projector, I turned it off."_

**_"You didn't destroy it?! All it takes is one more Hiss-infected person to find and turn it on to return the Hiss to full strength."_**

_"The Projector is safe and guarded, with only those I trust knowing where it is kept." _Jesse justified, _"I will not allow anyone to open it again for the Hiss."_

**_"So, our worlds aren't so similar now, are they?"_**

_"Something must have happened, some event to change our worlds. They sound similar enough, but there are several key differences. Why did Polaris fail you temporarily? That never happened for me."_

**_"I don't know, she wouldn't say. Though, Emily did say something about a new source of resonance."_**

_"That must have been when I entered the mirror, but that shouldn't have weakened your connection to Polaris… something else must have happened. Why did you change your outfit?"_

**_"Why'd you change your hair? Because I wanted to."_**

_"But where did you find that?"_

Essej shrugged, **_"I found it in here when I first came by. What can I say, it looked cool."_**

_"That's not very helpful, but I guess that doesn't matter…"_

**_"So, why are you here? Research?"_**

_"I'm trying to remove the rest of the Hiss in the Oldest House, and Emily thinks the key to removing the Hiss may reside with the Mirror and a form a resonance that was coming from it…" _Jesse paused after sending that, before quickly coming to a realization, _"Your Polaris! It's your resonance that Emily was sensing from the mirror. It's similar to mine, but different enough to be considered different."_

**_"Wait, so you thought you had a way to get rid of this Hiss by using the Resonance from my Polaris? It shouldn't make a difference though, since both of us have the same Resonance. I mean, when Hedron was alive and I was here, there wasn't a doubling or increase in anything. Nothing changed or effected the Hiss, and they didn't suddenly get stronger without Hedron once I took control." _**Essej reasoned.

_"That's the thing, Emily should have realized that your resonance was simply the reverse of my own, even with it as corrupted as it was from our side. I think that your Polaris and my own are different enough to actually make a difference."_

**_"What are you trying to say?"_**

_"I'm saying, maybe if we work together, we can clean out both of our Oldest Houses!"_

The room fell into silence after that as they both pondered the possibility. The idea certainly had some merit to it, after all, forcing them to consider the possibility.

**_"Then you're coming with me." _**Essej told her after the prolonged silence.

_"What do you mean?"_

**_"I'm all for destroying the Hiss, and helping you… but I have my own problems with the Hiss, too, as you know." _**Essej paused between messages as she tried to think of how to phrase what she needed, **_"I'll help you if you'll help me. My version of Emily (Ylime) has not made such a discovery, yet. Come with me, and I'll help you. After all, you came here to my world and invaded… twice. We'll find you answers, and solve this problem for the both of us..."_**

Jesse looked at her doppelgänger for a moment, thinking it over before coming to an answer…

"Well… No time like the present." She remarked without the use of the recorder.

Essej seemed to understand what she meant, as she holstered her Service Weapon and nodded toward the doors, ".gnietsaw s'emiT .og s'tel nehT" She replied, and even though Jesse couldn't understand what exactly she said, she understood enough. Leaving the Recorder behind since they knew there was more of them where they were going, they began walking beside one another toward the Synchronicity Lab's exit, ready to see if this lead was truly an answer to their Hiss infestation.


End file.
